Since even Shinji has several dedicated threads, I believe Shirou deserves his own thread too.

This is by no means a Shirou vs. Shiki thread, as that topic has been addressed before, and each camp has shown no sign of wavering. Therefore, there is no need to resurrect a nonconstructive debate here.

With that message stated, we can get to the discussion. It is almost universally agreed that Shirou was a Chauvinist fool in Fate, and I wholeheartedly agree with this. However, as Nasu has implied, the three routes demonstrated a "growth curve" for Shirou despite being parallel universes. In Fate, Shirou was completely oblivious of the repercussions of his ideal. In UBW, he realized what his ideal will lead to, but embraced it regardless. Since we all know Shirou's superhero ideology was borrowed from Kiritsugu, I believe what these two routes demonstrated are not the true characteristics of Shirou as an individual. He seemed to feel that he was obligated to do so because the one who saved him held such an ideal. The Heaven's Feel route on the other hand, was a much better read for me. I felt Shirou's decision in this route carried much more weight, as he, for the first time, fought for what he desired, rather than what Kiritsugu's ideology desired. Although his goal was much much less noble in this route, it is good to see he had stopped dwelling on Kiritsugu's legacy and become true to himself.

^pretty much what he said. but I will have to disagree concerning "fate hirou is a n00b-ish brat, foolish kid whose entire life is just but a petty dream".

so much I like shirou, I can't bring myself to like ubw shirou, and only ubw shirou. I mean... that guy just doesn't feel right. did his head got hit by a 500 pound hammer somewhere? the foundation of the ideal itself, while is more well established than in fate, was entirely marred by shirou's 10-year-old-kid-wanting-to-go-somewhere-his-parent-forbid-him-to attitude. and so much people hate fate shirou, I still like him better than ubw shirou.

why? relationship-wise deeper and much more solid. ubw romance story is just... awkward. I'm not contended at all. ideal pursuing? why, ubw shirou is more concerned of proving archer wrong than embrace the ideal because the beauty of the ideal itself.

in conclusion I like shirou. but ubw shirou was just... meh. nuff said from me.

"Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order and everything becomes... chaos.
I'm an agent of chaos."Fate/world providence

Ha ha. I'm the opposite of Raitei. I like UBW Shirou but not so much the Fate or HF Shirous. ^^;; I actually preferred the romance in UBW to the other two mainly because: I don't like Sakura, and it seemed more like Shirou had a crush on Saber than actually loving her. He was basically "in love" with her from the moment he saw her, which is a crush. Not to mention it seemed like his relationship with her was based on how beautiful she was rather than her personality. With Rin he even talked about how he liked her personality despite it being completely different than how he imagined her. Shirou also became badass by his own strength rather than using Archer's arm like in HF or not even becoming badass like in Fate. And about his personality, I've already explained it like 5 times on other topics so I'm not gonna repost cause I'm lazy and tired Anyway, UBW Shirou is the best imho.

But that said, i find myself having enjoyed both Fate and UBW Shirous...

I mean.. UBW shirou is indeed much more Garish of the Fate Shirou... Fate Shirou is uggh... but honestly i love how Fate Shirou goes about with regards to romance! XDD
The fact that its 'love Saber' route aside... Seriously...

I find the idea of how Shirou somehow finding 'true love', and yet deciding to let her go because its the right thing to do... Is much more mature then, say... to score with the school honor hottie...

I like future Shirou more since i also kinda dislike Shirou's idea of becoming hero for some reason too

"You sit proudly in this cave , like a Queen of Egypt.
In my service to you , I shall never know rest.
To prove my devotion , I have stolen this ostentatious offering.
But I'll show you things your dark blue eye haven't seen , smiles like a lake in the sun , blossoming like a lotus."

Well Shirou did have his GAR moment in UBW and that was about it. Other then that he did feel like the spoiled brat like Raitei mentioned earlier. In any case for Fate Shirou at least he had some kind of guidance to get him out of his n00bish persona. As for HF he finally steps up to the plate and suddenly decided to be GAR for once on his own. Even though he's not the strongest Master, at least he's acting like one none the less there.

If you saw, he was quite happy throughout the fight, maybe it was 'Archer' feeding his elation to Shirou through the arm, or just that Shirou was ecstatic about besting Saber, but you can see he had fun.
Also, though they were enemies, you really got to see the bond they shared in that fight. For those last couple of fights with her, I could see that Shirou, no matter what, really did mean something to Saber, no matter what she was at the time.

I actually quite like shirou in all routes.. I don't get why people go noob bash him so much... ( Well I get why but I'll leave it out since it's a shirou thread.. )

Alot of people seem to hate fate shirou while personally I quite like him ( possibly best of the shirous ).. shirou is by no means stupid but he simply follows his ideal.. I find that admirable he knows he cannot do it yet he tries. Bit typical of a shounen main character style but I find nothing wrong with the pureness in it... like chasing after your own dream.

He helps and put others ahead of himself since he put himself ahead of others in the fire 10 years ago it left him a emotional scar... A scar that tells him to help others so he can feel better of what happened in the fire where just left the people behind. His actions are explainable, admirable too in a way.

Truthfully shirou reminds me a bit of me... who here doesn't want to be able to chase after their dreams ( I'm sure enough at least some of you wanted to become super heroes after watching batman, superman, spiderman or something ), but the world here is incredibly realistic thus I somewhat admire/envy shirou being able to chase after his dreams despise what he goes people saying about him. A child pursuing their dreams is one of the most purest things you may see.

Mkilbride wrote:That's what he is. A child. Time for him to grow a pair and grow up!

Well it's more easy for a child to be a child, but for a adult being a child is a different story. Shirou himself isn't stupid he knows others make fun of him ( or should at the very least ) yet he follows the path he choose. To become a hero having the mindset of a adult while pursuing a dream of a child is a very hard thing to do praise worthy in my opinion.

I believe chasing after ones dream is important but most people side with the world do what the world does and in the end forgetting their own dream. Shirou though was able to continue chasing after his dream even after becoming a adult ( or grow up at least ) that itself is a admirable act... How many people came chase after their dreams and not give up?. People that don't follow what the world does are considered outcasts people like shirou are ones where people may call him a kid ( as in the world adult would closely define into something like " doing what other people are doing become that's the way it is " ). But I doubt much people can do it. Thus shirou should at least get some respect.

I feel the same about Shirou. I don't agree with the common acception that he is noobish and sexist. In my opinion, he is overprotective because something broke (again / ) in him during the fire when Kiritsugu saved him. In fact, he is quit realistic and clever but all his way of thinking is conditionned by the following fact People are more important than self, i must use my life to save them.
It is as if he has some kind of malfunctions in the program Shirou.

Then, i think shirou is someone really nice and admirable. And of course, he is not awesome yet because he is still in a state of maturation but heh, he is only 17 years old and fuck hell, this is the foolish age too where we are just hopeless. But the core of Shirou already shows us that he will be a great guy. But not a normal one.

"You sit proudly in this cave , like a Queen of Egypt.
In my service to you , I shall never know rest.
To prove my devotion , I have stolen this ostentatious offering.
But I'll show you things your dark blue eye haven't seen , smiles like a lake in the sun , blossoming like a lotus."

I only remembered someone asking if Shirou and Archer have sex , is it count as masturbation? Thats why i post this. + i did put open at your own risk hehe

"You sit proudly in this cave , like a Queen of Egypt.
In my service to you , I shall never know rest.
To prove my devotion , I have stolen this ostentatious offering.
But I'll show you things your dark blue eye haven't seen , smiles like a lake in the sun , blossoming like a lotus."

Mkilbride wrote:That's what he is. A child. Time for him to grow a pair and grow up!

As was said by others, it takes quite a lot for someone to be that convicted their dreams even at such a young age,and keep that in their young adulthood. In HF, he realized that what he really wanted was to protect those close to him, but the core of what his dream was is not wrong, its just something that is improable on your own. Plus, in the world they live in, and its multitude of powerful not-so-nice people, a mentality like this would be welcome, rather than a bunch of people who look at tragedies and just think, "Well, it can't be helped." Not like the Mage's Association, or the Church are that reliable in that regard, in fact, they are just shy of 'not giving a damn.'

The boy practically raised himself. He had two sets of parents die in front of him, and he still hasn't lost himself in grief. After Kiritsugu's death, he went and got himself a job to try to help support himself instead of relying on the Fujimura's, and even took other part time work on the side. He became good at fixing things and was a type of person you could rely on (though there were people that just used him, its still admirable). So, if need be, he has the skills to support himself with auto repair (he regularly fixed Raiga's bike to get extra money) or other repair jobs. He cooks for himself, and takes good care of his home.
He's got a good bunch of friends and associates, who genuinely like the time they spend with him.

To me, he is one eroge protagonist that I can respect as a person, I can see that he can support himself and that he has direction in life.
So yeah he does have a big set of cojones.

I actually like the first two versions of Shirou better, but I seem to be in the minority. I don't understand why people criticize him because he picked up on Kiritsugu's dream and decided to follow it, nobody would follow another's dream unless they too believed in it. I don't think he was too spoiled, he had to deal with a lot in his life, if it wasn't for Taiga and Sakura he would be completely alone so I can't fault him for clinging to the few people he has and wanting to protect them.

► Show Spoiler

I liked HF Shirou too, until he stabbed Saber in the heart, and then I went 'meh'. Kind of spoiled the route for me.